"Panic in the Streets" is a pretty standard B-movie that is raised a notch above other standard B-movies by its direction. Elia Kazan could take just about any material and make it better than it would otherwise have been in the hands of many others, and this film is no exception. It's a high-concept film: a murdered man's body ends up at the New Orleans city morgue and an autopsy reveals that it was infected with bubonic plague. The race is on to find the man's murderer to stop an epidemic. You would think this would get fairly run-of-the-mill treatment, which it sort of does, but it's Kazan's version of run-of-the-mill, which means there are all sorts of little directorial touches that prevent the film's style from feeling anonymous.
Kazan had a knack for atmosphere, and the New Orleans setting really comes alive, as it would a year later for his masterpiece "A Streetcar Named Desire." Richard Widmark is the doctor from the health bureau whom no one will believe, and he gives a fine, tense performance. Jack Palance uses his unbelievably sharp cheekbones and jawline to good effect as Blackie, the murderer on the lam. Zero Mostel is assigned the thankless duty of playing Blackie's sap of a fall guy. And I really liked Paul Douglas in a droll performance as the New Orleans chief of police and Widmark's right-hand-man.
The premise of this movie has become eerily relevant in today's climate, which actually makes it somewhat uncomfortable to watch. But it's actually got a surprising amount of humor in it too. Widmark and Barbara Bel Geddes, who plays his wife, have a lot of witty banter that sounds like the way married people really talk. Credit once again goes to Kazan for creating a female character that feels like a full-bodied person and not simply a collection of "feminine" traits. Widmark and Douglas are funny together too, and there's a laugh-out-loud scene when Douglas is interrogating some Asian boat workers who have only the barest grasp of the English language.
The obligatory chase and fight scene at the end does not feel at all staged, which is refreshing. The fist fight looks clunky and clumsy, which is how fist fights in real life are, not the nicely choreographed things we are used to seeing in Hollywood movies. The whole movie has a refreshing realism to it, so while it may not be especially profound or one that you remember for years, it will probably entertain you for a couple of hours at least and may strike you as a cut above other movies of its type.
Grade: B+
Kazan had a knack for atmosphere, and the New Orleans setting really comes alive, as it would a year later for his masterpiece "A Streetcar Named Desire." Richard Widmark is the doctor from the health bureau whom no one will believe, and he gives a fine, tense performance. Jack Palance uses his unbelievably sharp cheekbones and jawline to good effect as Blackie, the murderer on the lam. Zero Mostel is assigned the thankless duty of playing Blackie's sap of a fall guy. And I really liked Paul Douglas in a droll performance as the New Orleans chief of police and Widmark's right-hand-man.
The premise of this movie has become eerily relevant in today's climate, which actually makes it somewhat uncomfortable to watch. But it's actually got a surprising amount of humor in it too. Widmark and Barbara Bel Geddes, who plays his wife, have a lot of witty banter that sounds like the way married people really talk. Credit once again goes to Kazan for creating a female character that feels like a full-bodied person and not simply a collection of "feminine" traits. Widmark and Douglas are funny together too, and there's a laugh-out-loud scene when Douglas is interrogating some Asian boat workers who have only the barest grasp of the English language.
The obligatory chase and fight scene at the end does not feel at all staged, which is refreshing. The fist fight looks clunky and clumsy, which is how fist fights in real life are, not the nicely choreographed things we are used to seeing in Hollywood movies. The whole movie has a refreshing realism to it, so while it may not be especially profound or one that you remember for years, it will probably entertain you for a couple of hours at least and may strike you as a cut above other movies of its type.
Grade: B+